Review: Flatface G7A & Flatface G7O

The Flatface G7 wheels feature a dual-bearing design that allows for . I noticed a major difference in comparing some of the older Flatface wheel models to the G7's. In my own experience, they spin much smoother, and faster than the older models. There is a little bit of difference between the materials. I found that the G7O's felt a little bit harder than the G7A wheels. Also, the G7O's seemed to be much quieter. However, the G7A wheels spun faster, and longer than my set of G7O's. Overall, the Flatface G7 Wheels are the best wheels that I have used to date.

Flatface G7A Fingerboard Wheels




Flatface G7O Fingerboard Wheels





Buy Flatface Wheels at http://flatfacefingerboards.com/webstore/categories/Wheels/!!!!

Prete Review/Logic Solutions Full Length

Logic Solutions Full Length video is out so be sure to check it out.
The video features Euan Lynn, Eddie Sharples,Kyle Seis, Ethan Ebeling and friends!

Stream Here
Download Here

Prete Review

I was surprised when I received a package from Germany nearly out of the blue. Inside was the Prete that I commented on in an earlier blog, and a letter from Peter Ringel. As you can tell from the pictures, the deck has a unique, creative shape which gives it an elegant feel to it. Easily the prettiest deck I’ve ever seen.

Appearance: What can I say? This has to be the most unique as well as beautiful fingerboard decks that I have ever seen. The board looks very exotic, and the shape is as creative as I’ve seen. The tail and nose of the deck are wider than the center which, to me, amplifies the overall appearance of the deck. I have had multiple friends comment about the deck saying it’s the coolest thing they’ve ever seen. Perfect score and then some! (If I could allow it!) Grade: 4.0 / 4.0

Performance: Peter sent me the deck with a note saying he didn’t like how it performed, because it was harder to do Nollie Heelflips. When I tried to do Nollie Heelflips, it did seem a little hard to do, but it was still very much possible to do them consistently with the right finger positioning. For tricks other than the Nollie Heelflip, this deck is a BEAST. I slapped on some FBS Smooth Tape, for the heck of it, and tested it out. The board has the most pop I’ve ever experienced. I almost had trouble controlling how high the tricks would go. However, the insane amount of pop is a very good thing. I noticed my switch flip height dramatically improve, which is one of my personal flaws in that trick. Switch 360flips are a breeze thanks to the extra snap behind the deck. My personal belief is that the deck lightness due to the smaller middle of the deck leads to the extra pop. Performance would be a perfect score if it wasn’t for the Nollie Heel problem. Grade: 5.7 / 10

Overall Score: 9.7 / 10 A+

Review: Berlinwood Regular

Berlinwood Regular w/ Nollie Metal Wheels

Appearance: The deck looks absolutely amazing. The lacquer was done perfectly smooth. All the holes in the deck were aligned perfectly to Tech Deck trucks, so I had no issue there. The sides of the board were well sanded as well. The alternating plies look cool, and the graphic I thought looks great as well. There were no visible defects in my deck, even the holes were sanded well. It’s hard not to give a Berlinwood a perfect score in the looks department. Grade: 4.0 / 4.0

Performance: My personal preference is griptape for fingerboarding, however, on this deck I probably would make an exception. Having a flat deck with griptape makes it a bit harder to pop tricks higher. Nonetheless, the board performs very well. It has a very crisp, solid pop and has yet to wear out. For griptape diehards like me, I’d probably get a Berlinwood Deep, because griptape + no concave makes tricks kind of difficult. All in all, the Berlinwood Regular is very durable deck that will last a long time with consistent performance. I’d recommend it to anyone who does not like too much concave in their deck, or is looking for a change from their Wide/Deep decks. There isn’t much a fingerboarder could ask for…except… maybe another BerlinWood! Grade: 5.5 / 6
You can buy Berlinwoods from these distributors:
http://www.blackriver-ramps.com/
http://www.flatfacefingerboards.com
http://www.fingerboardstore.de/


Overall, I felt that the BerlinWood Regular was a very solid deck. However, next time I would use Rip Tape or FBS Smooth Tape instead of Griptape.
Score: 9.5 / 10 A

Review: Bonsei Concrete, No Comply decks, BRR kink ledge

I would like to start this review off with the Blackriver-ramps kink ledge. 

I did not order this from BRR, but as everyone knows, the shipping from them is always fast and they always pack their products securely. 

The craftsmanship of the ledge is amazing, like most BRR products so don't be fooled by those imitations on ebay, get the real thing. The wood is perfectly sanded, and coping is flush with the wood, and grinds amazing. 

The ledge is about 7.75 inches tall at the highest point and 4.5 at the lowest. It is also almost 11.5 inches long, so it is kind of a large obstacle.  It can be either high or low depending on what you have it set up on. 

The fun factor of this obstacle is easily a 10/10. You grind or slide down the ledge and just float out of all your tricks, it makes for hours of fun. 

Next is the Bonsei Concrete curb.
I ordered this from Mike Schneider, via flatfacefingerboards.com the shipping took about 2-3 days via priority mail. It came in a priority mail box wrapped in a sponge like material and packaged inbetween a ton of newsprint, it was very secure inside.It can also be purchased from Blackriver-ramps. The block was wrapped in a paper to resemble the actual block itself with the bonsei logo printed ontop.
The curb itself is very very smooth, fresh out of the package it grinds amazing, it doesnt need wax or anything. I have heard of them chipping easily, mine has not even after about 3 solid days of use, however, there is a special substance you can apply to it to prevent chipping, which I am not at liberty to tell, it's what you call secret.
The block itself is a bit low, it's about an inch and a half tall, it does have a nice length and width, about 8.5 by 2.5 inches. The height issue can easily be fixed by putting a few pallets (which can also be purchased at blackriver) or what I did since I have no pallets, is use a couple mini dv tape cases.

The edges of the block are really smooth and grind easily, even after a few days of solid use they stay smooth and grind nice.
The pictures I have taken are after a few hours of use.






I highly suggest you pick one of these up, they are definitely worth the price, shipping can be a bit pricey if you live in the United States, so I suggest buying from Flatface, if you live in Europe, support Blackriver. The guys at Bonsei did a wonderful job and I can't wait to see what they produce in the future.

Lastly we have No Comply decks. I got this deck from Todd, the owner of No Comply, for being on the team. This particular model is a new one, when ordering you can ask for the Tim Alexiel mold.
The shipping was extremely fast and the deck was packaged in a mouse pad, inside a small box, inside a bubble mailer, very secure.
The craftsmanship of the deck is amazing, the dips are nice and even, the holes are drilled perfectly, perfect lacquer, and the graphic is brilliant. I had the option of getting the graphic as an everslick, but I chose to get just a normal one and it out, the graphic will be available as an everslick when Todd opens and it is my graphic.



I set the deck up and immediately had no trouble adjusting to the shape. The deck has a super realistic shape as you can see in the pictures, the tail is slightly shorter than the nose just like a real board. It has awesome pop and the perfect amount of concave, not too deep but not too mellow, right in the middle. The kick height is also right in the middle for optimum performance.


The plies are very brightly colored and it also has white plies, which hasn't been seen on many fingerboards.

Over all, I suggest picking one up when Todd opens, I am not sure of the price at this moment, but the decks will definitely be worth it.
I would also like to take the time to review No Comply flex tape. Flex tape is a soft griptape material similar to rip tape or fbs smooth tape. It is .5 mm thick and has a nice smooth feel to it, more similar to fbs extra smooth than rip. It comes in precut and uncut pieces, the precut pieces come in regular and wide, to cover both kinds of deck sizes. You can also get die cut designs in the the flex tape.
The grip is really good, however there are some faults with it. I have noticed when using it I have alot of trouble popping regular kickflips, I am not sure why this is, my theory has to do with the thickness of the tape, sometimes thinner isn't always better. The tape also tends to shred kind of easily after long periods of use. It is a good product, but probably not my preference to rip, but it is definitely worth trying out, what doesn't work for me, might work for someone else. You will be able to purchase it soon off of the No Comply site, coming in the near future. Here are some pictures of the tape and it compaired to rip.


thickness comparison

flex tape

rip tape

Review: Yellowood

First I'd like to start off telling you a little about Yellowood. Yellowood is a new company out of Portugal run by Phillipe De Goyri, the decks, are 100% hand made, with top quality materials and exotic woods. More than 26 hours of work go into each individual deck.
The shipping was pretty fast from Portugal to the United States, it took about 2 weeks from beginning of order online,www.yellowoodstore.com to delivery. Phillipe is very helpful and answered all my questions. The boards, trucks, stickers, and shirt came securely packaged in a bubble mailer, with the first deck in it's own packaging as well as the trucks and t shirt. Phillipe was also kind enough to send a second deck and the trucks as extras.
The deck I bought was priced at 19.95 euros which is the same price as a Berlinwood and roughly about 32.00 usd.



as you can see it came nicely packaged in a baggie with a cool tag, stickers and a sheet of Ryp Tape. The Ryp Tape is very similar to Blacktape, if any of you are familiar with that. It's 2mm thick and very very light for being that thickness, it doesn't add any extra noticeable weight to your deck. It also grips fairly decent, it's not my preference over Rip Tape or FBS Smoothtape, but it is good and you can't complain for it coming with your deck.
The craftsmanship of the board is flawless. The dye job is phenomminal as well as the lacquer, the kicks are nice and even, the concave of the deck is symmetrical and the sanding is perfect. Getting the hardware on is no problem at all, it has nice kingpin holes and nicely countersunk hardware holes. As you can see in this picture of the everslick prototype.

nicely sanded

The shape of the deck is also very nice,it is 28mm wide x 100mm long and it happens to be my exact personal preference, although I feel it could use a bit less concave. Nonetheless Phillipe assured me there will be a slightly less concave version in the future. The deck has medium kicks, medium to deep concave depending on what type of grip you are using. If you are using the Ryp Tape, it will have slightly less concave due to the thickness.
blurs varias deck

everslick prototype

you can also see the thickness of the Ryp Tape in the above pictures
The performance of the deck is very nice as well, it's very poppy and very strong. It took absolutely no time to get used to the deck which is very nice, I know a lot of people are turned off to a board if they can't get used to it immediately.
Here are some pics of the deck set up

Now I would like to talk breifly about the everslick prototype and trucks.
The trucks are anodized yellow, and are very bright, almost to the point of being gold. I don't think Phillipe will be selling these, he just sent them as a gift.

The everslick is a future product of Yellowood, this is a prototype model, the production model may vary. Phillipe gave this to me to test out, although I haven't had a chance to set it up yet (due to lack of gripping materials) I am already impressed with this deck. The bottom is made of Teflon and it holds true to the name everslick. I've tested the sliding ability on rails, marble, and it slides like butter, so be on the lookout for these, they will be about 21 euros but are totally worth it.